Mareth Vensill Crowe
Overview Mareth Vensill Crowe was the 2nd duke of the Fiefdom of Tharsis, ruling from the years of 422 to 452. Legacy After the previous duke, Vensill Liantus Crowe, had gone missing, Mareth Vensill had replaced him as the immediate next of kin. As his father was slipping into complete delirium in his later years, Mareth was rather used to the responsibilities he was to inherent from Vensill Liantus, doing much of his father's work for him. Mareth's first official order of business was to complete Skyscour Castle, a herculean task left behind from his father. Although visibly less uneasy than his father regarding construction, it was clear that Mareth was also determined to complete the castle as quickly as possible. Whether Vensill had told him the truth behind his urgency or simply out of respect to his late father, Mareth regardless had completed the monolithic Skyscour Castle by 443, which was decades quicker than initial estimates. This unprecedented completion time for such a large structure lead some to believe that a Macralith Crystal was in the possession of Vensill Liantus and his son, although so far no official records supporting this claim exist. Having seen his father spiral into insanity, Mareth rationalized somehow that the elvish slaves who were working on the tower were to blame. Journal entries of his seem to indicate that he believed that the elves were not working hard enough, and were therefore the cause of his father's worry. After Mareth had came into power, he forced the slaves to work far longer hours and in greater number, which sharply increased casualties from construction accidents and falling. After Skyscour was completed, Mareth Vensill's rule of Tharsis was rather poor. With little financial and population growth, Tharsis underwent economic stagnation, the majority of their funds having been put into Skyscour Castle. The fiefdom would not recover from the economic downturn until Mareth's daughter Liann was put into power, transforming Tharsis into a military economy through the use of the Tharsiscan Knights. In 452, on a political trip to the Fiefdom of Thimia, Mareth Vensill was assassinated alongside the Thimian Duchess Lanis Siri Daegr by Vaselian ultranationalists, sparking the War of Glass and Shadow. Mareth Vensill Crowe would be replaced by his daughter, Liann Mareth Crowe. Trivia After construction of Skyscour Castle was complete in 443, Mareth Vensill ordered the deaths of the elvish workers (and their families) who had specifically constructed the peak of Skyscour in the final years of construction. As those outside of his inner circle were forbidden from ascending the central tower past the 37th floor, it seemed as if Mareth was determined to keep Skyscour's secrets away from the public. As the actual top of the castle disappears into the clouds when viewed from the ground, only the elvish workers who had completed the peak knew what it had looked like, and as such were summarily executed by Mareth's administration. What exists on the peak is unknown to most, and it is said that only the ruling duke or duchess of Tharsis knows what lies at the top. As many historians, however, believe that Mareth was unable to pass on his knowledge of Skyscour to his daughter Liann before his assassination, it may be likely that the true purpose of Skyscour Castle has been lost to time.